Chương 11
Claire simply looked up from a table and saw a woman she had spent nine years refusing to imagine aging.
Laura stopped.
Her hand went to her throat.
Claire remained seated.
Ethan looked from one to the other.
“That’s her?”
Claire nodded.
Laura approached.
Each step looked difficult.
When she reached the table, she did not reach for either child.
“Hi.”
Claire hated the word.
It was probably the only possible one.
“Hi.”
Ethan stared.
Laura looked at him.
“You got tall.”
Ethan frowned.
“You don’t know how tall I was.”
Laura almost smiled.
“No. I don’t.”
He seemed to approve of the correction.
They sat.
For several minutes nobody spoke.
A printer hummed behind the librarian’s desk.
A man in a Bears cap coughed into his sleeve.
Somewhere below them a child protested the return of a picture book.
Claire studied her mother’s hands.
Same narrow fingers.
Same crescent scar near the left thumb.
“You look like Grandma,” Claire said.
Laura blinked.
Then laughed softly.
“I was hoping to avoid that.”
It was such an ordinary response that Claire’s throat closed.
Ethan said, “Claire said you’re alive.”
Laura looked at him.
“I am.”
“Are you staying alive?”
Claire almost interrupted.
Laura answered.
“I plan to.”
“Are you leaving again?”
Laura’s face changed.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan frowned.
“That’s a bad answer.”
“Yes.”
“Try again.”
Laura looked at Claire.
Claire said nothing.
Laura folded her hands.
“I have an apartment in Milwaukee. I have a job there.”
“What job?”
“I manage invoices for a construction company.”
Ethan looked offended.
“Dad said you were an art teacher.”
“I was.”
“Why’d you stop?”
“Money.”
“Oh.”
For some reason, that satisfied him.
Claire said, “Why Milwaukee?”
“It was close enough to watch from a distance and far enough that I thought Richard wouldn’t look.”
Claire stared at her.
“You watched?”
“Sometimes.”
“How?”
Laura’s eyes dropped.
“Public things.”
“Social media.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me?”
“Yes.”
“You had no contact.”
“No.”
“But you watched.”
Laura nodded.
Claire’s anger rose again, but differently.
Less clean.
“You saw my graduation.”
“Yes.”
“College?”
“Yes.”
“You knew where I worked.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Ethan.”
“Pictures.”
Ethan said, “That’s creepy.”
Laura smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
“Did you have another family?”
Claire had not planned to ask.
Laura looked surprised.
“No.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Not currently.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Laura looked down.
“I lived with someone for two years.”
“What happened?”
“I was bad at being known.”
Claire sat back.
The answer did not ask forgiveness.
That helped.
“Why did Daniel contact you?”
“He found out Richard planned to sell controlling interest in the hotel group.”
“Why would Daniel care?”
“Because the buyer’s attorneys would audit historical liabilities. Daniel was afraid they’d discover payments tied to him.”
“So he wanted the notebook before they did.”
“Yes.”
“To protect himself?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
Laura looked toward the windows.
“Daniel has spent years telling himself he was only following Richard’s orders.”
Claire thought of Ethan behind the shattered window.
“Apparently he still does.”
Laura flinched.
“Did he know the key was in Dad’s desk?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he take it himself?”
“Richard changed the office safe code.”
“But Ethan found it in a drawer.”
Laura closed her eyes.
“Of course he did.”
“What?”
“Richard always hides important things badly when he thinks nobody knows they’re important.”
Claire almost smiled.
A memory surfaced.
Her father hiding Christmas presents in the wine cellar every year despite Claire discovering them at age seven.
She hated that the memory still belonged to him.
“Mom,” she said, “what is in the notebook that scares Dad most?”
Laura looked at her.
“Not the money.”
“What then?”
“One payment.”
“To who?”
“Daniel.”
“He got lots of payments.”
“One was different.”
“How?”
“Two hundred fifty thousand dollars. March third, 2017.”
The date of Laura’s disappearance.
Claire felt cold.
“For what?”
Laura’s eyes remained on her.
“To make me disappear.”
Ethan shifted in his chair.
Claire said, “Dad paid Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“To kill you?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
“To stage the bridge.”
Claire stared.
“Daniel knew?”
“Yes.”
“All nine years?”
“Yes.”
“And Dad?”
“No.”
“Explain.”
Laura folded her hands tighter.
“I went to Daniel because I needed help leaving. He hated what Richard had done in Room 317, but he was afraid of losing his career and being charged for the payments he had helped structure.”
“So he agreed to help you.”
“For money.”
“From Dad?”
“Yes.”
Claire waited.
Laura continued.
“Daniel told Richard I was threatening to expose the company unless Richard gave me two hundred fifty thousand dollars in cash to leave the country.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“Dad paid?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel took the money.”
“He used part of it to help me disappear.”
“And kept the rest?”
Laura nodded.
Claire laughed quietly.
“Of course.”
“Daniel told Richard I had gone to Canada. Then he drove me to the bridge and helped stage the scene.”
“Why the bridge?”
“Because I was drunk enough to think it was convincing.”
Claire froze.
“You were drunk?”
“Yes.”
“During all this?”
“By then, yes.”
Laura looked ashamed.
Not theatrically.
She rubbed the scar near her thumb.
“I had been sober four days. Then I bought vodka.”
“Why?”
“I was afraid.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
He was listening.
Too carefully.
Laura saw it too.
“I am not saying alcohol made me do anything. I made the decisions.”
Ethan said, “Did Dad make you leave?”
Laura looked at him.
“No.”
“Did he make you stay gone?”
“No.”
Claire turned toward her mother.
Laura continued.
“He made leaving feel safer than staying. But I stayed gone because I was afraid and ashamed. That part is mine.”
The answer hurt.
It also mattered.
Ethan nodded slowly.
Then he said, “Dad lied too.”
“Yes.”
“A lot.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel locked me in a car.”
Laura’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
“You all sound terrible.”
Claire covered her mouth.
A laugh escaped anyway.
Laura laughed too.
Ethan stared at them.
“What?”
Claire shook her head.
“Nothing.”
May you like
“That’s rude.”
For a few seconds, the three of them laughed in a library while Richard Hale sat in police custody and Daniel Mercer faced a kidnapping charge.
